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Hans Zimmer and A R Rahman are scoring the music for a Rs 4,000 crore two-part film starring Ranbir Singh, Sai Pallavi, and Yash.
The trailer for Ramayana, released in multiple languages, indicates that their approach is a far cry from the bhajan-inspired music preferred by Doordarshan versions of the epic.
For the first time, Oscar winners Hans Zimmer and Rahman have teamed up for a background score, and the Ramayana trailer just gave film buffs a sample of what is coming up. Zimmer is known for such blockbuster hits as Lion King (1994), Pirates of the Caribbean (2003-2007), and Interstellar (2014).
The Ramayan trailer score blends sweeping orchestral arrangements, of the kind heard in Hollywood epics, with Sanskrit chants. Clearly, the film is not going to stick to the approach popularised by Doordarshan versions of Ramayana and Mahabharata, which drew heavily from the bhajan devotional style.
Earlier versions of the Ramayana, such as the one popular on Doordarshan in the late '80s, drew the words from Tulsidas's Ram Charit Manasa. The rhythm was played on the deep-toned pakhawaj and enhanced with the manjira, the hand-held cymbals popular in bhajan music.
Fans reacted with enthusiasm to the Zimmer-Rahman score, with one saying it was "pure goosebumps.”
The film, directed by Nitish Tiwari. is set for a Diwali release. It stars Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, and Yash as Ravana.
Ramayana, made in two parts, is a live-action animation film, combining actors and artist-generated graphic action. The lavishness of the production is evident right away, although not everyone is convinced hybrid live animation was the way to go.
Doordarshan versions of the epic worked with animation and graphics still in their early days. The graphics in the upcoming Ramayana are more sophisticated, but could impart a comic-book fantasy feel to what is essentially a mythological saga.
* Watch the trailer in Hindi, Kannada, and Tamil here.
Flashback
* Listen to Mangal bhavan amangal haari, the title song from Ramanand Sagar's production of Ramayan that ran for years on Doordarshan. Ravindra Jain, who scored for several hit films such as Chit Chor, also composed music for this song.
